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Things are looking up [:)]

I got my second colony, a continental world with high quality! Also, I managed to make a defence pact with the Kiadian who are the most powerful after the Quameno. The Quameno went all the way up to 20k military, then for some reason their reputation went diabolical and the Ancient Guardians declared war on them, now they are down to only 12k military, getting their butts kicked! I've got Ocean tech too now, stole it from them, but still only low quality worlds available [:D]

sit back

and watch them fight it out

great strategy Woodman!

You do AI designs, right? Does the AI understand to use rail guns, and not replace them with some dinky blasters all by itself, or do you adjust the tech priorities in the empire settings?

In the game i currently run (that I have not visited since declaring war) I have AI research and design, and have the joy of watching the "breadth first" research of the AI. It will surely be useful to research one step of each weapon before heading any deeper...

Hey Bing!

Yes I use AI designs, but I do my own research. I sometimes get problems where the AI uses the wrong stuff, but not so far in this particular game. I think it uses the best you have, but sometimes if you research another tech of the same level that you don't want to use, you may end up with the AI switching to it (like if you found the tech in a wreck for example, and wouldn't have otherwise researched it).

Thanks for the answer. And the AI uses two kinds of weapons, so you ought to level two, right?

There are of course not only weapons, but as you mention one need to be very retire happy (on inherited pirate ships), or find tech to have too much problems.

Woodman when speaking of the tech in a wreck you bring up a point that has been bothering me. Earlier in my current game I salvaged a MUCH advanced tech Cruiser I found abandoned. It had advanced weapons, energy storage, engines, hyper, shielding etc. All across the board but I saw NO improvement in my own tech.

Do you (or someone else for that matter) know how it works and what I should expect? Since then I haven't been retiring/salvaging my relics but instead using them in my fleets or as single ships.

Thanks for the answer. And the AI uses two kinds of weapons, so you ought to level two, right?

There are of course not only weapons, but as you mention one need to be very retire happy (on inherited pirate ships), or find tech to have too much problems.

Hey Bing,

In my experience the AI designs use a main weapon and a secondary. Main weapon will be either lasers/phasers or rail guns. Secondary will be torpedo or missile. Then it also uses extras like ion, point defense and bombardment in lesser numbers. I'm guessing it uses Area weapons as extras too, but I tend to avoid those if I can anyway.

So wise course is to either research lasers/phaser or rail guns and also research one of torpedo or missile. In this particular game I have gone for rail guns and missiles. Of course, this is just assuming you are using AI designs, you could mix it up and use all sorts if you designed them manually to do that.

Woodman when speaking of the tech in a wreck you bring up a point that has been bothering me. Earlier in my current game I salvaged a MUCH advanced tech Cruiser I found abandoned. It had advanced weapons, energy storage, engines, hyper, shielding etc. All across the board but I saw NO improvement in my own tech.

Do you (or someone else for that matter) know how it works and what I should expect? Since then I haven't been retiring/salvaging my relics but instead using them in my fleets or as single ships.

Hey Bill,

When you retire a advanced ship you must retire it at a shipyard, not retire it immediately. So choose the retire at nearest shipyard option. It should then fly to the nearest shipyard and deconstruct and when it finishes you should then get a message in the scrolling messages at the top of the screen telling you what technology was enhanced. You can then check your tech tree, the yellow bar for that tech will have advanced or you will have gained the tech entirely.

The same happens when stealing tech. Don't expect to steal a tech in one go, it will simply advance the yellow bar for that tech in the tech tree. I had to send my agent four times to get Ocean colonization in my current game.

The research costs you chose at the start of the game do come into play here I think aswell as in general research.

You must retire it at a shipyard (retire order). Once done you will get a popup with advanced understanding, and the tech it advances.

As far as I know, you get some extra research progress in a single tech.

I have never payed too much attention to it, but I do see the small progresses (or large) in things I have never researched. Like finally unlocking the fusion reactor even though I went the quantum line myself and never researched it.

Thanks guys

I dont know if this will help.. Try trading tech with other empire build up a lot of cash and pay the second largest empire to goto war with the biggest empire. in the meanwhile you work dipplomatic relations(agents) and sabotage hes smaller planets (incite rebellion)99% is what i like.. but you can do 87% and fill up transports with the most amount of troops you can and send them to their smaller colonies, so get 15-25 transports full of troops and try to attack each colony simultaneously, you should scout the defense of each planet your going to attack with explorers. form small quick squadrons 3-5 ships and let the fighters go first if heavy resistance, if no defences are near, sneak your transport in(make sure your transport is fast 30 speed and can take damage and doesnt try to flee at first sign of attack.. troop attacking planet atleast go for 4/1 ratio this way if backup reaches planet you have time to get more troops down to reenforce your guys on the ground.
Do all this without declaring war on him.
Let him declare on you.
Thats what i would do anyways.
some planets will be re-taken perhaps but you have just squished alot of ressources and income for his empire.
Just be ready to goto war with him when hes pissed off.

use your own designs, AI designs suck. I go heavy shielding weapons and between 5-6 speed, since most fights are brawls at close range anyhow. My frigates have like 200-300 firepower.

who are these quameno and ancient guardians? ive never seen them, you playing amod?

Ancient Guardians are a part of the ROTS story line and the Quameno are one of the core DW races (They're the frog-like amphibians) [:)]

That's the latest expansions. I'm sorry to say, with such speed, the latest AI will be smart enough to torpedo bomb your ships into oblivion from long range.

I don't think it is about smart AI.

The AI loves to put default ship orders "all weapons" for weaker enemies, and "standoff" for stronger. This makes ships only use long range torpedoes (if available) against stronger enemies. It can be pretty annoying having a strong and slow ship in that scenario.

I have seen 8 cruiser fleets of AI generated ships eat medium spaceport for breakfast, since the AI used long range stuff (that I don't like...). Just circle and kill, taking no damage.